Boor-pasteniitg



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

CHARLES FROST, OF WATERBURY, CONNECTICUT.

DOOR-FASTENING.

Speeicaton of Letters Patent No. 24,859, dated July 26, 1859.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, CHARLES FROST, of Waterbury, in the county of New Haven and State of Connecticut, have invented a new and Improved Fastening for Doors, Gates, &`c.; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of the same, reference being had to the annexed drawings, making a part of this specification, in which- Figure l, is a face view of a pair of folding doors having my invention applied to them. Fig. 2, is a horizontal section of ditto, taken in the line a", x, Fig. l. Fig. 3, a vertical section of ditto, taken in the line y, y, Fig. l. Fig. 4, a detached perspective view of my fastening. Fig. 5, a face view of a single door, having my invention applied to it.

Similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts in the several ligures.

This invention consists in the employment or use of a drop plate applied to the door or gate in such a manner as to insure a proper fastening and at the same time dispense with the use of auxiliary fastenings or bolts hitherto required on one of a pair of folding doors.

The invention is more especially designed to be applied to gates and to the doors of barns and outhouses, and to supersede the various kinds of latches hitherto most generally used for fastenings.

To enable those skilled in the art to fully understand and construct my invention I will proceed to describe it.

A, A, represent a pair of folding doors which may be constructed and hung in the usual way and therefore do not require a minute description.

B, represents a vertical bar which is fitted centrally in the frame of the folding doors and may be so arranged as to be capable of being removed when necessary. Through the bar B, a shaft C, passes horizontally, and to the outer end of this shaft a drop plate .D, is attached. The form of this plate is clearly shown in Figs. l, t, and 5, and it will be seen by referring to said figures that the position of the plate through which the shaft C, passes is wider than the other part and when the drop is in a vertical position laps over the edges of both doors and secures them in a closed in it so that when the drop plate is turned up in a horizontal position over one door, as shown in red Fig. l, the other door may be opened, the recesses or notches being made to allow the doors to clear the outer edge of the drop plate. It will be seen that either or both doors A, A, may be opened, but they cannot be opened simultaneously the drop plate being turned in a horizontal position first in one direction to open one door, and then in an opposite direction to open the other door.

Cn the inner end of the shaft C, of the drop plate D, a button or thumb nut b, is placed so that the drop plate may be turned at the inner side of the doors. A pad-lock may be applied to the drop plate by having a staple (shown in red) driven into the bar B, through which staple and a loop in the drop plate the bow of a paddock may pass. A padlock is shown in red applied to a drop plate on a single door in Fig. 5. In applying the drop plate D', to a single door, A', see Fig. 5, the shaft a', of the drop plate passes through one of the slides of the door frame and at such a point as to allow the drop plate when turned in a horizontal position and ott' from the door to be perfectly free from the latter.

From the above description it will be seen that the drop plate when applied to double or folding doors,` secures both doors in a closed state and that no auxiliary bolts or fastenings are required to be applied to one door as has hitherto been the case in order to make the fastening complete. It will also be seen that the invention is extremely simple and may be manufactured at a small cost and applied by any one of ordinary ability.

Having thus described my invention what I claim as new and desire to secure by Let` ters Patent is,

The employment or use of the drop plate D, constructed of the form and applied to the door or doors substantially as and for the purpose set forth.

` CHARLES' FROST. W itnesses NORTON J. Boni., THEoDoRE S. BUEL. 

